Flowers fade and chocolates get eaten, but a Eurowings Airbus A320 with your mum's name across it? That's a thank-you with staying power. The German budget airline, part of the Lufthansa group, has opened a competition called 'Name a Plane' that lets members of the public put the first name of someone special on one of its aircraft.
The idea is simple. Eurowings wants nominations for people who 'make a real difference through their kindness, support and appreciation of others' – the carers, helpers and quietly generous types who rarely get recognition. The airline's chief executive Max Kownatzki framed it as a nod to the small, everyday gestures that make other people's lives easier, saying the airline wants to give that kind of contribution the spotlight it deserves.
Taking part is straightforward, but you'll need to be quick-ish and get your entry right. Nominations are open until 11 October via the airline's dedicated page at eurowings.com/nameaplane. Your pitch has to sit between 250 and 400 characters, so you'll need to distil why this person matters into a tight little paragraph – no rambling. One entry per person, and you must be 18 or older and live in Europe to enter.
The winners won't be announced until December, when four Eurowings A320s will take to the skies wearing the first names of the chosen nominees. That means your nominee's name could soon be taxiing past thousands of passengers at airports across Europe every week – arguably the ultimate flex of appreciation.
Is this a marketing stunt? Sure, in the sense that every airline competition is. But it's a harmless one, and the entry bar is low: a few sentences about someone who deserves credit, and you're done. Worth noting that it's the nominee who gets the honour, so the real prize goes to the person you're writing about – a nice inversion of the usual 'win a holiday for yourself' format.
For travellers, the appeal is mostly sentimental rather than practical – you're not winning flights, and the named planes won't change your route options. But if there's someone in your life who's carried you through a rough patch, a character limit and five minutes of typing is a small price for the chance to see their name on a jet. Just keep it within the character count and get it in before 11 October.
